The Hidden Story of Big Sugar

Other than gold, no single substance has had a bigger hand in shaping the history of the western hemisphere than sugar. These videos explore the dark history and modern power of the world‘s reigning sugar cartels.

Using dramatic reenactments, they reveal how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, and continues to be at the heart of a present-day epidemic: consumers who are slaves to a sugar-based diet.

(Watch this video: 44:29)








(Watch this video: 44:28)

 


Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I thought it would be great to juxtapose the stevia article in this issue with the amazing story of big sugar. If you aren’t familiar with the story I would strongly encourage you to watch the videos. You will see the incredible human brutality that occurred as a result of the early sugar trade, and in some parts of the world similar injustices are occurring.

So if you have kids, watch this video with them and give them a great history lesson.

Halloween is without question the biggest event of the year for the sugar industry. They sell more treats during this season than nearly all others combined. So you will be barraged with sugar-filled candy advertisements, perhaps more so than at any other time of year. Even toddlers, it seems, are clamoring for their share of sweet treats, and this is not by happenstance.

The sugar industry is a shrewd, savvy, well-oiled machine that will hook your children from the youngest ages if you allow it, and has already hooked the majority of the U.S. population.

These two videos are a fascinating introduction into the incredible power of the sugar industry, and they’re filmed in a dramatic way that makes them very interesting to watch.

You all know that the tobacco industry has been pushing its addictive cigarettes on the world’s population for decades. When you watch these videos, you’ll see the striking similarities between big tobacco and the big sugar industry, which is now echoing many of big tobacco’s defense strategies.

Namely, they are denying any connection between their product and the obesity and diabetes epidemics going on in the industrialized world. They also have access to immense power and give generously to both political parties to ensure that their products are protected.

Yet, sugar is one of the biggest enemies you face in your pursuit of a healthy eating program. It appears in nearly ALL processed foods and drinks -- even things you wouldn’t think would be sweetened, like canned beans, mayonnaise, and pickles -- making it virtually impossible to avoid.

Sugar Can Destroy Your Health

It is a proven fact that sugar increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones. This can lead to:

* High blood pressure and high cholesterol
* Heart disease
* Diabetes
* Weight gain
* Premature aging

If you read my newsletter regularly, you know that controlling your insulin and leptin levels is one of the most important things you can do to optimize your health and slow the negative effects of aging -- and avoiding sugar is essential to do this.

Sugar has many more negative side effects beyond increasing your insulin levels, and you can read 76 ways sugar can destroy your health now.

One way in which sugar has been linked to the obesity epidemic, for instance, is that when consumed in massive quantities, sugars cause hormonal changes that lead to overeating.

Meanwhile, sugar suppresses your immune system, contributing to allergies, and it is responsible for a host of digestive disorders. It also contributes to depression, and its excess consumption is, in fact, associated with many of the chronic diseases in the United States, including cancer.

The sugar industry, of course, wants to downplay its health risks because there is big money involved.

The average American eats well in excess of 150 pounds of sugar a year, or about 2.5 pounds each week. This is no surprise because the single largest source of calories in the United States is high-fructose corn syrup from sodas.

The sugar industry has had its share of challenges lately, such as a growing artificial sweetener industry that has been stealing more and more attention and market share.

As a result, they’re coming on stronger than ever, touting their “natural” sweet treat as a fine part of your diet. Of course, most people don’t eat just a dab of sugar a week; they eat over 2 pounds, which is not surprising when you consider that sugar is actually more addictive than cocaine.

If you need help ridding yourself of a sugar addiction, then please consider energy psychology tools. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of the best ways I know to help kick the sugar habit. It includes a marvelous technique called Turbo Tapping that has helped tens of thousands of people kick the soda habit.

Sugar is Better Than Artificial Sweeteners

Now that I’ve expressed the dangers of sugar, I have something to say that may shock you:

If you HAVE TO have something sweet it is FAR better to choose the natural, real-deal authentic sugar than its synthetic, no-calorie, artificial sweetener counterparts.

Artificial sweeteners are, hands-down, worse for your health than sugar.

And, while it clearly tends to decrease your health, sugar in moderation is likely not going to cause any significant damage. What do I mean by moderation? Well, something on the order of five pounds a year or less.

Another option if you’re looking for a safe, natural sweetener (that also has no calories) is to give the sweet herb stevia a try.

New Man from 2012? A gripping Future of Mankind video by Michael Tsarion

COLD FUSION - Beginning of a New Golden Age with Clean Energy?

Cold Fusion: Energy powered by Water?

Could Cold Fusion play the same role that the Internet played in the 90s boosting the US and world economy for at least a decade or is the dream of an infinite source of clean energy at almost zero cost too good to be true?

Cold fusion refers to nuclear fusion of atoms at conditions close to room temperature, in contrast to the conditions of well-understood fusion reactions such as those inside stars and high energy experiments. Interest in the field was dramatically increased on March 23, 1989 when Martin Fleischmann, then one of the world's leading electro-chemists,[1] and Stanley Pons reported that they had produced fusion in a tabletop experiment involving electrolysis of heavy water on a palladium (Pd) electrode.[2] They reported anomalous heat production ("excess heat") of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium.[3] These reports raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy.[4](source Wikipedia)

Your Marvelous Mind

Bob Proctor Training » Your Marvelous Mind

Low levels of Vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people

The Natural Advocate - Best Self USA/Health: Low levels of Vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people

Bob Proctor Training » That word, “Paradigm”

Bob Proctor Training » That word, “Paradigm”

Oil Storm 2005 - Fiction (Julia) Becomes Reality (Katrina) - Part 1 of 10

Oil Storm is a 'fictional' docudrama that predicts, with uncanny accuracy, that a Category 4 hurricane would slam into Louisiana killing thousands, leaving the State under water and cutting off America's oil supplies.

The drama predicts a fictional Hurricane Julia would hit the US coast on Saturday, September 3, 2005. In fact, Katrina hit just five days earlier on Monday, August 29, 2005.

The Co-Director, Caroline Levy, stated. "I was completely weirded out by it. It was just bizarre watching the news and seeing the Mayor of New Orleans and reporters on CNN and NBC saying almost exactly the words we'd scripted! It felt very odd indeed. We'd been allowed to film our fictional scenario in the Emergency Preparedness Center and I saw on the news the very same people we'd met there." For more...read on...http://uktv.co.uk/eden/item/aid/534041

1 of 10 Videos in Series - For rest of the parts, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4nVMVc9Fv4&feature=related

'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits' - Forbes.com

'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits' - Forbes.com

The Great American Bubble Machine PT.1 of 5

Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.



In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

Is it TOO LATE? Marc Faber thinks so!

The economy is NOT recovering, they say, and the U.S. faces a depressing "eventuality" of either crushing deflation (Mish Shedlock) or runaway inflation (Marc Faber). The timing and type of this eventuality is uncertain, say the gurus, but they are certain it's too late for America to change course.

"It's beyond repair -- it's too late," to avert fiscal disaster, Faber declares.

Mish agrees: "The day of reckoning has arrived. The question is how long it takes to play out."



This grim outlook doesn't mean you're helpless. Faber recommends individuals prepare for doomsday by buying gold, owning assets abroad and buying property outside of major cities.

Dscover the Top 100 Safest US Banks

Elliott Wave International: How to Find a Safe Bank

The World's Biggest Debtor Nations - CNBC

The World's Biggest Debtor Nations - CNBC

To save itself, Detroit plans to shrink - US - World - The Times of India

To save itself, Detroit plans to shrink - US - World - The Times of India

Deploying An Infosys Fortune - Forbes.com

Deploying An Infosys Fortune - Forbes.com

What You Must Know About Diabetes in Order to Successfully Treat it

First and foremost, you must understand that diabetes is NOT a blood sugar disease like your doctor may have led you to believe.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease caused by insulin resistance and faulty leptin signaling, both of which are regulated through your diet.

Until that concept becomes well-known in both the medical community and by the public at large, the misconception about what diabetes is and the appropriate way to treat it will continue to be promoted and people will continue dying prematurely.

Conventional treatment, which is focused on fixing the symptom of elevated blood sugar rather than addressing the underlying disease, is doomed to fail in most cases.

Why?

Because most treatments for type 2 diabetes utilize drugs that either raise insulin, or lower blood sugar. Avandia, for example, lowers your blood sugar levels by increasing the sensitivity of liver, fat and muscle cells to insulin.

As I will explain below, this in no way addresses your underlying problem, which is metabolic miscommunication.

Let me assure you, the cure for type 2 diabetes has NOTHING to do with giving insulin. Giving someone with type 2 diabetes insulin is one of the WORST things that can be done. Any physician doing this simply does not understand insulin physiology.

Leptin is a Major Key to Successful Treatment of Diabetes

The hormone leptin is largely responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and whether you become insulin resistant or not.

Leptin, a relatively recently discovered hormone produced by fat, tells your body and brain how much energy it has, whether it needs more (saying "be hungry"), whether it should get rid of some (and stop being hungry) and importantly what to do with the energy it has (reproduce, upregulate cellular repair, or not).

In fact, the two most important organs that may determine whether you become (type 2, insulin resistant) diabetic or not are your liver and your brain, and it is their ability to listen to leptin that will determine this.

When your blood sugar becomes elevated it is a signal for insulin to be released to direct the extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as a starch called glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply -- fat. Thus, in this regard insulin's major role is not to lower sugar, but to take the extra energy and store it for future times of need.

Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of directing the extra energy into storage.

This is why treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication.

Taking insulin is one of the WORST things you can do, as it will actually make your insulin and leptin resistance worse over time. And taking diabetic drugs like Avandia may send you into an early grave from a heart attack or heart failure.

Fortunately, the safest treatment alternatives are also the most successful!

Fructose – One of the Major Culprits for Both Diabetes and Obesity

Before I delve into the other treatment strategies, I want to emphasize the importance of avoiding fructose if you want to successfully address your diabetes, or avoid it in the first place.

It’s important to understand that your body metabolizes fructose differently from glucose (regular table sugar is a disaccharide and 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose), and these differences lead to serious health consequences.

For example, fructose does not stimulate a rise in leptin, so your satiety signals are diminished. It also reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier by raising triglycerides. And whereas glucose suppresses ghrelin (the hunger hormone, which makes you want more food), fructose does not.

Fructose also increases your insulin levels, interfering with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus, so your pleasure signals aren’t extinguished. Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.

All of this also sets the stage for over indulgence and hence overweight, and puts you on the path toward both obesity and diabetes.

I strongly advise keeping your fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

However, it would be wise for most people to limit fruit fructose to 15 grams or less as it is virtually guaranteed that you will be getting “hidden” sources of fructose from just about any processed food you eat.

This includes fruits, which also need to be carefully measured to make certain that you’re not inadvertently consuming too much fructose.

Keep in mind that most processed food is loaded with fructose and is best avoided entirely. For instance, there are about 40 grams of HFCS per can of soda.

Clearly, eliminating excess fructose from your diet is FAR safer and MORE effective than taking a drug like Avandia if you have diabetes. However, virtually no doctor will inform you of this, as there aren’t billions of dollars worth of drug company marketing muscles behind this sort of recommendation.

Most Diabetes Cases Can Be Cured Without Drugs!

Please understand that nearly 100 percent of type 2 diabetics can be successfully treated -- meaning you will no longer have the symptoms of diabetes, or the high risk of developing health complications -- if you are willing to implement a few healthy lifestyle changes.

Diabetes runs in my family. About fifteen years ago, I diagnosed my father with it and gave him these guidelines to follow. He's 81 years old and does two hours of exercise every single morning. Recently he's added strength training. He's been able to keep his diabetes under control without taking a single drug by following these principles.

If you follow the recommendations listed below, your likelihood of successfully going off of drugs and having normal blood sugars is close to 100 percent, as treating type 2 diabetes is simply a matter of implementing some basic strategies to improve your insulin and leptin resistance:

1. Exercise

Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, without which you’re highly unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is clearly one of the most potent ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.

Typically, you’ll need large amounts of exercise, until you get your blood sugar levels under control. You may need up to an hour or two a day. Naturally, you’ll want to gradually work your way up to that amount, based on your current level of fitness.

If you’re unsure of how to get started, I recommend you view this comprehensive exercise program video for tips and guidelines.

2. Eliminate Grains and Sugars

For the last 50 years, many people have been following the nutritional recommendations dictated by conventional health agencies, which advise a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet. The end result has been a 700 percent increase in diabetes in the same time frame, and many have come to view diabetes as an incurable chronic disease…

This is clearly not true, but the inevitable result of seriously flawed dietary recommendations. Instead, you’ll want to eliminate foods that your body will react to by creating insulin, which includes ALL types of sugars and grains -- even “healthy” grains such as whole, organic grains. This means avoiding all breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn (which is in fact a grain). You may even need to avoid fruits until your blood sugar is under control.

3. Eat Right for Your Nutritional Type

Exercising and avoiding grains and sugars might not be enough unless you balance your protein, carb and fat ratios for your unique and specific genetic biochemistry. You can read more about nutritional typing here.

4. Monitor Your Fasting Insulin Level

This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 to 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin receptor sensitivity is.

The recommendations mentioned above are the key steps you need to achieve this reduction.

5. Optimize Your Vitamin D Level

Interestingly, optimizing your vitamin D levels can not only help improve type 2 diabetes if you have it, but can likely eliminate the risk of type 1 diabetes in your children if you are pregnant. It’s also vital for infants to receive the appropriate amounts of vitamin D in their early years for these same reasons.

Ideally, you’ll want to do this by exposing a large amount of your skin to appropriate amounts of sunshine (or a safe tanning bed) on a regular basis, year-round. Your body can safely create up to 20,000 units of vitamin D a day this way.

However, if neither of these options are available, you may want to use an oral vitamin D3 supplement. But remember, if you choose to take an oral supplement it’s essential that you get your levels tested regularly by a proficient lab to make sure you’re not reaching toxic levels, and are within the therapeutic range. Maintaining your vitamin D levels around 60-80 ng/ml can significantly help control your blood sugar.

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These are the top steps you should take, starting today, if you have type 2 diabetes. Doing so will virtually guarantee that your diabetes will disappear. And if you want to make sure you are not one of the millions impacted by the coming diabetes epidemic, these same steps will help you to stay healthy and diabetes-free.

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'Buy farmland and gold,' advises Dr Doom - Times Online

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Diabetes Alert: Your Gut Microflora May Be Out of Balance

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